Food and Drink

Well done to Cllr Michael Hoy for trying to improve the District Council’ licensing policy: That was the only change to the policy and I’m pleased to say that a cumulative impact policy (saturation) is being included in the document. This means that any new applicant within the area (Rayleigh) will have to demonstrate that the new license will not…Read more

There’s a new planning application that’s recently come in. It’s for 57 to 61 High Street Rayleigh, which we think includes Santander Bank, New Look and Elliott and Smith, the new estate agents. You can find the application on the council website here. The application is described as: Shopfront Alterations , Erection of First Floor Corridor and Change of Use…Read more

A while back we mentioned that you can check on local food hygiene ratings for our district here. At the moment there’s only one premises in our district with a rating of 0 out of 5 – a cafe in Rochford. Though quite a lot of places have a rating of only 1 , meaning “Major Improvement Necessary”

You may have eaten a pork pie hundreds of times (and in Rayleigh Byfords bacon-topped pork pies are especially good). But have you ever made one? Big Spud – the food blog from Rayleigh – has a recipe here. It’s a little shambolic round the edges but it’s a lot of fun to make. I hadn’t made hot water pastry…Read more

The Food Standards Agency is currently showing three restaurants in Rochford District with a zero rating for food hygiene! This rating of 0 out of 5 means ” Urgent Improvement Necessary” You can find them (and ratings for over 400 other businesses)here.

We frequently link to Rayleigh food blogger Gary Fenn.. He seems to be going from strength to strength , and now has an e-book published now, called Fifty Ways With Spuds. You can find it for sale here.

From Rayleigh’s own food blog, “Barbecue beef feijoada with spicy sweetcorn” “Here’s a way of feeding a crowd and keeping with the Latin American theme: my barbecue beef feijoada, made with brisket. I’ve eaten feijoada a few times and always enjoyed it. But what’s in it? I consulted a Brazilian friend of mine in order to get a few ideas…Read more

One of our Lib Dem colleagues in Watford mentioned that their local paper had published a list of all the food establishments in that town which got a rating of “Zero” on food hygiene. Which prompted us to check for our district. You can find out about this by going to the Food Standards Agency website here. You can…Read more

Most of us connected with onlineFOCUS are fond of Italian cooking. So we are looking forward to the Italian Food Market that Rayleigh Town Council are bringing to the High Street on March 1st! And as a taster, here’s some some shots of Italian food and an Italian Food Market in Bologna (taken on holiday by Chris Black a couple…Read more

Rayleigh food blogger Gary Fenn has a new video this today – featuring sweet and sour pork. It takes about 10 minutes and looks very tasty… and Gary is also mastering the knack of cooking and doing a video presentation at the same time! Freedom Food are asking for people to come up with a video recipe featuring Freedom Food…Read more